Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Twilight Dance

Between sunset and dusk, I set off to look for the phantom of twilight. You can barely see it in these pictures, but I managed to finally find it!

It tried to elude me behind a slow moving cloud. But I knew I had to be patient to finally catch the fleeting phenomenon named after the swift messenger of the Roman gods. Because it was so mysterious and only visible at either sunrise or sunset, the Greeks even thought it was two different objects. They named it Apollo and Hermes respective to when it could be seen. We know it more commonly now as the Roman equivalent of the later, Mercury.Join me at sunset and find Venus following the setting sun. It is easy to find since it is the 3rd brightest celestial object in our sky. Venus will be brilliant. Look for a smaller star close by. Marianas' skies offer a great view. If you have binoculars or a telescope use them, but it is clear enough to see without.I really need a memory card to afford better resolutions. Maybe you can share with us your own pictures. You have another week till Mercury disappears from our view again. Mercury follows the Sun and hides in its light so, this is the best time to see it.I played a bit with the pictures to help you see elusive world more easily.It was still visible up to 8:00PM so try to catch the two planets together when you can. When you scratch those two off your list, you can still see Mars in the evening and now Jupiter close to dawn.Including Saturn, this brings my list to 6 planets in total that I have seen so far.Yes, I am counting Earth as one of them. One day, I will have a chance at viewing the others that cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Come out and enjoy the ones we can see tonight.